Revolutionizing Patient Care: The Role of Digital Health

Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia

Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia is a Family Physician at the Centre for Family Medicine Family Health Team and the Managing Director of the eHealth Centre of Excellence. The eHealth Centre of Excellence enhances the use of information technologies in care delivery and has been involved in a number of important digital health initiatives, such as eReferral, eConsult, EMR decision support tools, EHR tools, and virtual care. Dr. Alarakhia is the Faculty of Digital Health and Innovation Lead at McMaster University as well as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Alarakhia was awarded the Digital Health Executive of the Year Award in 2019 and the 2018 College of Family Physicians of Canada Award of Excellence. 

Shelagh Maloney

Shelagh Maloney is the Executive Vice President, Engagement and Marketing at Canada Health Infoway. She is responsible for managing key stakeholder relationships, including those with patients, clinicians, and the broader health sector. She also leads Infoway’s performance analytics and change management programs and is responsible for coordinating and executing communication and marketing efforts in support of Infoway products and services.

Shelagh holds a B.Sc. in Applied Health Sciences from the University of Waterloo and is a Certified Professional in Health Information & Management Systems. In 2017, Shelagh received the inaugural Women Leaders in Digital Health Award that celebrates the top 10 female visionaries who are harnessing the power of IT to transform health care in Canad

Dr. Irvin Mayers

Dr. Irvin Mayers is a Professor of the Division of Pulmonary Medicine for the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta. Dr. Mayers is a collaborator within the University of Alberta Pulmonary Research Group and has been involved with national research collaboratives regarding asthma and COPD. Dr. Mayers’ clinical interests include asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and sleep medicine. His other interests include the translation of clinical research to clinical practice, including health technology assessment.  Currently, Dr. Mayers is the Medical Advisor to the provincial oxygen program. 

Ava Mehdipour

Ava is a PhD candidate at the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University, where she studies under the supervision of Dr. Ayse Kuspinar. Ava completed her H.BSc and MSc at McMaster University. For her MSc thesis, she examined the measurement properties of quality-of-life measures in COPD. Her research area of interest is evaluating health outcomes in the field of aging and mobility. As part of her doctoral work, Ava is currently examining the validity of virtually administered mobility assessments for older adults.